New Beginnings
by Usha
Summary: Struggling through her 18th year, Max's friends seem to have deserted her. But when she is suddenly thrown into a world much different than her own, she has a chance for new beginnings


Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or any part of DragonLance. So don't sue me. I don't have anything but a stinky dog and some ratty clothes. Oh but Max is my character.  
  
Author's Note: Thank you to all who are reading this fanfic. I really appreciate it. I would really like it if you would please read and reply. This is my first fanfic that I have done on here. So good and bad comments are welcome. __________________  
  
Chapter .01 - Stranger  
  
Max ran her hand through her dark curly hair for the tenth time that night. She was frustrated by the thought that her friends would leave her alone again on a Friday night. Not once did they ask her to come out with them.  
  
She gritted her teeth angrily as she grabbed her keys and headed out the door. She didn't need friends anyway. She had enough company in her books. The bookstore was her home away from home, her secret place. And that was just where she was headed. She hopped in her car and gunned it down the street.  
  
Twenty minutes later Max was walking into the Fantasy section of the bookstore. She quickly picked out some new DragonLance books (her favorite) and tossed them on the counter.  
  
"Twenty-one ninety-five." Max paid the cashier and hustled out the door. A sudden rain started as she sped down the narrow, winding road. Max took a curve a bit too fast and laid on the breaks. Time seemed to stand still as the car sped out of control, head on into a tree. There was a piercing screech of metal at the sudden collision. A sharp crack of bones and screams filled the night.  
  
And then he was there. A man in sky blue robes that were gathered at the waist with a thin silver cord. The man had a thin white beard that came to a point down by his waist. An overly large, old, and patch-covered hat sat upon his head. The man's eyes seemed to pierce through her body, right to her very soul.  
  
He seemed to be reading her thoughts. They must have been terribly clear. She pleaded with her eyes at him. Call someone, get help. She yearned for her parents, long gone and buried in the earth; for her overbearing brother; for her Aunt Sabine and Uncle Lawrence, her care givers; even for the people she called her friends. She wished for anyone to be there to comfort her, to take her mind off the pain, to let her know everything would be okay.  
  
He nodded at her as if to say he knew. And he reached out a hand to her. She wanted to take it, to cry into it until the pain stopped, to receive his comfort. But he hand lay limp along her side.  
  
The stranger's hand hung in the air for some moments before he let it fall gently upon Max's chest. A searing pain gripped her chest. A hot white rod of fire fell from the sky and seemed to suck her upwards. For what seemed like an eternity her heart stood still, blood rushing through her head, filling her ears. She sat there gasping for a breath that did not come, trying futilely to claw at her throat, furiously to hoping to bat away the hand that brought her so much pain. But her arms stayed where they were. Her vision narrowed and blackness crept into it until the only thing she could see was the white rod falling from the sky. And Max knew she was dieing and the man must be God. She opened her mouth as if to scream, to mourn for the life that was being sucked from her, but only spittle gurgled in her throat.  
  
Then as suddenly as it began, it ended and Max lay panting, moaning at each breath.  
  
Max closed her eyes for an instant and when she opened them again she was in the man's arms, being carried away from the wreckage of the car. And she made as if to talk, but the man's eyes compelled her to keep silent. She made a show of looking around quickly and realized she was deep in the forest, quite a ways from the road or anywhere she could scope out a landmark, something to tell her where she was. There was nothing, not a thing was familiar.  
  
She closed her eyes again, hoping that this would just be a dream. When she opened them again they were standing before huge pillars that reached into unbelievable heights in the sky. The pillars looked so close as if they were almost touching. The man didn't stop though, he kept moving towards them. Max shuddered thinking about her body touching the pillars, rubbing them and ripping the skin, pushing in on her bones. But the two passed through the pillars without any problem.  
  
The blue robed man stopped before a gigantic black bowl that reflected the night sky down upon them and lay her down in it. She shuddered as he laid both hands on her chest again. A calming presence filled her then and she closed her eyes once to let if flow through her body. It washed away her pain and she could feel movement coming back into her limps.  
  
The man stepped back and watched her as she sat up and blinked.  
  
"What? Who.who are you? Are you.?"  
  
"Some people call me Fizban." 


End file.
